Kids would line up on the either side of a valley and would grab on to a zip line. The park employee would then swing them across a 120' valley.
The bottom of the valley was filled with mulch in 1980:
Image from YouTube
By 1983 the mulch had been replaced with sand.
Image from YouTube
Children would line up at either platform.
As the child held the zip line, an employee would run down the ramp pushing the child to the other side. Once the child got to the other side another child was pushed across.
In 1983, the procedure had changed. There was now only one zip line with an employee at each end and one at the bottom of the pit . The employee on the end would push the child forward to the employee in the middle who would send the child the rest of the way with another push.
In October of 1980 a 12 year old girl named Karen broke her wrist falling off the zip line. Perhaps this instigated the changes in setup and the decision to change from mulch to sand.
Super Grover's Cable Glide was located at the edge of the park, in fact, you could see the street from the platform:
Image from YouTube
Image from YouTube
The ride was eventually removed as the park expanded.
This is what I've been waiting for you to dig up. This ride is the #1 memory I have from the park probably because Super Grover was my favorite character.
ReplyDeleteI am fairly certain that the original version of the ride had four sets of ropes. Two in the lower valley course, which you have pictures of, and two in a different higher course that launched from a deck but had a ramp on the opposite end. You can see this second version briefly at the 4:00 mark in this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuskb8fEuNE
From that video it looks like they were next to each other. In all the pictures you have the higher course would be directly behind the camera.
I also seem to remember one course was one way but the other let you ride back to the start when you reached the end. That may just be due to a poor memory.
I see exactly what you mean. There is definitely another higher zip line shown in the video.
ReplyDeleteI see (what looks like) the lower valley in the background, but there appears to be an exit at the bottom (center) which doesn't make sense.
I am looking an the building to try and see if this would help indicate if this was on the left or right side of the park.
If only I had a guide map from 1980 (or any pre-2004 for that matter!)
I will certainly be revisiting this!
Thanks for the info. Hopefully more people will have info to flesh this out.
The next time I talk to my parents I'll see what they have lying around. I loved to collect guide maps to pour over them when I got home but I don't remember if I kept this one or if it is even still around. At the very least I know we took pictures there because one of me on this ride was used in a school project to make a Christmas ornament.
ReplyDelete